Doctors and teachers

Athenaeus, in Wise Men at Dinner says: If there were no doctors, there would be nothing more stupid than teachers. more...

Erigena and the King (the original Irish joke)

One day tho king and Erigena sat on opposite sides of the table, with the courtiers ranged around. The scholar, through forgetfulness or ignorance, transgressed some of the rules of etiquette, so as to offend the fastidious taste of those who sat by, upon which, the king asked him what was the difference between a Scot* and a sot (Quid distat inter Scottum et Sottum?). "Tabula tantum" (Just the breadth of the table)," said Erigena; and it is more than likely that the royal witling ventured on no more puns, for that day at least, at the scholar's expense. Erigena is said to have died in France some time previous to the year 877. * A Scot then meant a native of Ireland more...

Fear of Death

Fear of Death.

It is recorded of a person who had been sentenced to be bled to death, that, instead of the punishment being actually inflicted, he was made to believe that it was so, merely by causing water, when his eyes were blinded, to trickle down his arm. This mimicry, however, of an operation, stopped as completely the movements of the animated machine as if an entire exhaustion had been effected of the vivifying mud. The man lost his life, although not his blood, by this imaginary venesection. more...